


Wolfskin

by BloodEarthAndInk



Category: Rotkäppchen | Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tale)
Genre: F/F, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 17:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6865858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodEarthAndInk/pseuds/BloodEarthAndInk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or, How I Met and Fell in Love With my Mortal Enemy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolfskin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvilMuffins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/gifts).



I could feel the boy's eyes on me as I brought myself down, next to the she-wolf. Red, his name was. Grandmother could go not a day without mentioning the boy, she cared for him so much, how could I not know his name? I call her Grandmother, even still. Ah, well, everyone who knew her called her so, she had that manner about her that made you her grandchild while in her presence, related by blood or not.

I am not beginning this properly am I? Starting off in the middle, I mean. I have never been one for telling stories, to be honest. I don't like the attention on me. Heh. Well. A hunter is at her best when she _isn't_ noticed, isn't that so? But...no. I much prefer to listen. It would be better if I began again. The trouble is _where? When? “_ Once Upon A Time...” That's how they all start off, isn't it? Then I suppose I'll begin there...

Once Upon A Time there was a Forest. It was a very old Forest and very deep, the sort of place that you hear about in these travelers tales, only this Forest was real. The shadows covered the ground thick, and coated the air so that the sunlight only broke through rarely, in a dappled green haze. People made paths through the Forest, built a village near the Forest, but even so the Forest would not be tammed. Even along the paths, the branches still reached from the trucks of their trees like clawed limbs, as if ready to grab you, and it was old wisdom that you never left the path. Worse things than scratching tree limbs awaited you if you did.

What use do children have for old wisdom though? None, as far as I was concerned. I was a hunter's daughter, a girl who's father's dotted on her and fulfilled her every passing whim. If I wanted to follow him on his hunts, learn his trade, why, of _course_ he let me. We traveled off from the path a thousand times. _“Stay by my side.”_ He would warn me, _“Keep your guard about you. Respect this place. And do not travel too deeply in.”_

I didn't listen.

One day I wandered off. Don't ask me why, or how. The answers to those questions are now blurred by time, and unimportant, besides. I remember, however, the heavy heat and the low drone of cicadas that had settled over the air. I was in one of the few spots where the sunlight had managed to break through the trees and it's beams nearly _danced_ over the forest floor below. I wiped my brow as I sped over the earth, chasing after bright flowers to bring home. For each one I found, an even more beautiful one swayed out of the corner of my eye, just as I stood from bending over to pick the last. And so I went, deeper and deeper into the trees without even realizing it, even as brambles and thorns began scratching at my limbs and tangling in my hair, and my skirt tangled up around my own legs. The trees began pressing in closer around me, the shadows growing deeper. As the light dimmed and the eye-piercing colors of the flowers faded, the wood forget-me-nots and fairy slippers thinning out into nothing, I finally looked up, and found myself caged in. The trees rose up like thick walls about me. I swallowed, glancing around, and I took a step back, realizing I had no idea where I was.

My breath caught, and absently I ran my thumb over the knuckles of my balled up fist. Gooseprickles rose up along my arms as I tried to swallow past the lump forming in my throat. I wasn't lost though. _I_ couldn't be lost. I would just need to go back the way I came.

Once more I glanced about myself, pressing my lips together, before giving a nod so determined my braids whipped against the back of my neck. I started forward.

My heart was thudding in my ears. _This looks familiar_ , I tried to assure myself, my eyes darting over the trees surrounding me, _I've seen this before, I'm sure I have._ My stomach clenched, the words feeling false, even as I thought them. If anything the forest only grew stranger to me. I felt as though I were shrinking, the trees grew so tall and wide around now. I looked up, but couldn't see even the lowest hanging branches, everything swallowed up by the darkness above. No wind blew, not even the slightest breeze. But I kept wandering on through the tree-made night. What else could I do?

My feet led me on a twisting path, and I was sure I heard the clatter of leaves and the creek of wood despite the stillness in the air. A cold pit opened in my gut. A shadow flashed out of the corner of my eyes. I stumbled back, my head snapping towards it, just as something hard caught against my foot.

I screamed, falling back over myself. Gravel and dirt bit into my hands as I landed hard against the ground. Blinking, I found myself staring up at the sky. Rough bark rubbed at the back of my legs. I hesitated, only for a moment, before cautiously reaching forward, my hands gripping around a thick tree root. Suddenly, a sharp laugh escaped me. A tree root! That was all! As I began pulling myself up, I was shaking my head. Beneath me, however, I felt something shift. The root _was moving_ , crawling out from beneath me and slowly curling away.

With a startled yelp I sprang back, my eyes darting around wildly. All remained still, however.

I knew what this was. I was trapped, being led on like a stag by my father's hounds, cornered and given no other place to go. The realization sank in like a stone plunking into a pond.

I found myself staring into the dark spaces between the trees behind me. If I turned back would I just find myself back here again? Would I be trapped? Wandering these woods forever? My hands felt itchy with sweat and drying flower juice. I reached back, tugging at the end of one of my braids. As I fought back the hard lump forming in my throat, my stomach sank.

I would not cry, though.

Something wanted me to go this way, and I would not let it see me cry. Taking in a deep breath, I began marching onwards.

_I should have stayed with Da. I shouldn't have left the path. I shouldn't have come out today, I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have..._ The litany repeated itself over and over in my mind as I was drawn on.

As if able to sense my resignation to my fate, the trees ahead of me began to thin and shrink. I could see now the sky above me, an inky black dotted by starlight. I frowned for a moment, glancing up, my brows drawing together. I couldn't have been walking that long, could I? How was it so dark already? I tangled my fingers into my skirt.

In the distance I could hear the croaking call of ravens, growing louder and louder as I walked farther on. Distantly, in the back of my mind, the thought passed that they could have been speaking in human voices...

“...Out a ways back, as I was flying here I saw him, near the edges of the trees! Poor bastard, killed out there and no one knows of it- well-” There was a cackling sound, almost like a laugh, “No one who will _care_ at any rate!”

I took in a sharp breath, seeing two figures off in the distance, perched in the low hanging branches of a tree, speaking to one another. I edged slowly nearer. Men, tall and long limbed, their features sharp and pointed. They dressed all in black and silver from the collars of their tunics to the hems of their long cloaks, even to the boots on their feet. Their hair was long and shaggy, that same black color, falling down over their pale faces and woven in with shining feathers that caught the silver of the moonlight.

“Ah! Lead on then, friend! Lead on!” crowed one of them, lounged up against the trunk of the tree, a leg dangling over the side, “You may perch yourself right comfortably upon him, and I shall peck out his bright eyes, and when we're done I'm sure his hair will make a right _lovely_ nest!”

I'd heared enough, my stomach twisting itself into knots by now. I tried to back away, into the trees again. A loud snap broke through the silence though, as a twig cracked beneath my feet. The two men- or whatever they were- spun to look directly at me.

Their eyes were glinting marbles in their heads, pure black all around.

I stood petrified for what felt like an eternity, before suddenly breaking off into a run.

“Well, who was she then?” I heard the words fading off into the distance.

“The Old Wolf's prey I think. Hey, we play our cards right, we might be in for _two_ meals before the night is through...”

I don't know how long I ran. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't care. All that mattered was my legs pumping beneath me, the ground pounding against my feet, and putting as much distance between me and those...those _things_ as possible. My breath was scratching against my throat and my heart was pounding. A hot nauseousness spread through me forcing me to finally slow down, my breath scraping against my throat.

I sank down onto the ground, my legs curling up beneath me. Pressing my back against a tree, I shut my eyes. Who was I running from? Where were they? _Why_ had they brought me here?

I didn't know. And I was tired, so, so tired. The air was cool against my skin, and the earth was soft beneath me. I didn't want to move, didn't want to get up again...

“Are _you_ her?” a girl's voice, demanding, the sort of voice that belonged to a Princess or a Lady. She didn't sound any older than me though, and I was too tired to move or say anything, my stomach still doing flips over itself, so I ignored her.

I felt a sharp jab at my side, and my eyes snapped open. I glared at her.

She was only a girl, and she _couldn't_ have been any older than me. Her hair was long and gray, tied into a tail that fell to her feet. Over her shoulder's the silvery pelt of a wolf was slung. Standing with her arms at her hips she looked down at me, a hard look look in her eyes- golden eyes, I only realized later- her brows drawing together and a frown cutting a thin line out of her mouth as she cocked her head to the side. She looked like one of Da's dogs, doing that.

“Am I who?” I snapped. I was tired, I was lost, and I didn't need strange wood-folk asking me even stranger questions. After all I'd been through that day, I just wanted to be left alone.

She only snorted, “The one that's supposed to kill me.” She said, as though it were obvious, “That's why I brought you here.”

_The one that's supposed to-_ _ **what?!**_ At those words I sat up, blinking at the strange girl, eyeing her for a good long moment. “Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to kill _anyone?”_ I paused, staring at her. “I don't even _know_ you. I don't want to kill you.”

“But you will.” she said, sitting down before me. “I know. The Owl-Woman told me so.”

Now it was my turn to snort. “Well, I don't know any Owl-woman and I don't know _you_.” I said, no drawing to my feet, my arms crossing stubbornly over my chest, “But I know I'm not a murderer, and it's awful rude of you to say otherwise.”

If I was as stubborn in my insistence that I wouldn't kill her, she was as stubborn in her belief that I would, “The Owl-woman knows everything, and if she says it's true than it will be. And so you're going to kill me, unless I do something to stop it.”

I didn't like the way she was looking at me, that fire-spark of determination glowing in her eyes. I found myself taking a step back, right into the tree behind me. “...What do you mean by that?” _Run, run!_ The thought never reached my legs though, and I was frozen to the spot.

“Tch.” The girl looked me up and down before tossing her head, “I'm not going to do anything to you _here._ Nothing can die _here.”_

“What do you mean nothing can-”

“They just don't. That's not how this place works.”

I gave her another long, hard look, “Then why are you so scared? Just stay here and you'll be fine!” Wherever here was...

“Oh, fine for you to say!” She gave a heavy sigh, turning her back on me and stalking off several paces, glancing about “How'd you like to be stuck in one place forever? I go where I like, and I'm not having some chit of a girl stopping _me!”_

My hands bunched into fists at that, and I stomped nearer, _“Hey!_ You're no bigger than me!” The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them.

“Only because that's how I want to be right now.”

This was just too much for me. My gaze turned from her, dropping to the dirt and twisting undergrowth, back up to the trees around me, before drawing inward. “Your crazy....” I finally murmured.

She must have heard that. Lowering her head, she scowled at me. If I didn't know better I'd have thought a _growl_ had escaped her! I do know better now. I _know_ a growl had escaped her. “I am not! And I brought you here, you're lucky I haven't saved myself the trouble and eaten you when I first saw you!”

I froze then, staring back at her, “Eaten me?” The urge to laugh fought against the ever growing need to run as I stood there, my heart pounding in my chest. I shook myself, and my mind groped for a subject change,  _any_ subject change. "And what do you mean  _brought_ me here? How could you do that?"

She only shrugged, "this place is as much a part of me as I am of it." was all she said in explanation, “anyway, you make it sound like it's so strange when you talk like that. I'm a wolf and that's what we do. We hunt and we eat.”

“You're not a _wolf!_ You look like me!” I wasn't looking at her, though, instead I was focusing past her shoulder, at the forest beyond. She stood at my height, but she didn't look so strong. If I had to fight her maybe I could manage an escape...

“I can look however I like, that doesn't change what I _am.”_ She gave a long huff, before stepping closer to me. I tried to jerk back again, but the tree stood in my way, and she actually began _sniffing_ at the air around me! “Like how small you are doesn't change what you are. A hunter. I can smell it, all leather and pine and dirt. A pity too. You're pretty...for a human.”

She paused here, seeing how I was still staring at her, my eyes narrowed, my muscles tensed, still ready to bolt.

“Look, see?” Before I could ask what, I saw two shapes beginning to peak up from beneath her hair. _Wolf's ears_. I took in a sharp breath, any words I might have said died on my tongue as soon as I thought them.

The wolf girl, meanwhile, was staring at me , apparently lost in thought. We both stood in our respective silences for what felt like an eternity, before she finally spoke up again.

“How old are you, anyway?”

“What?!”

She gave a sigh. “How old are you?” she repeated, slowly, like she thought I was stupid. She probably did, now that I think about it.

I felt my face grow hot at the tone in her voice. “Twelve!” I snapped.

“Oh. I thought younger. Like I said, you look small.”

I was glaring, but quickly shook my head, trying to recover. “What are you going to do to me then? Since you brought me to this place and _can't_ eat me?”

She paused for a moment, thinking again. “Maybe I'll keep you here. I mean, you can't hurt me then, right?”

Keep me there? I felt a wave of cold dread crash over me, my mind going blank for a moment. Keep me there? Lost forever in the woods? Never to find my way home, never to see Da again? She wanted to... “You can't!”

“Why can't I?” Her words weren't a challenge, surprisingly. Merely curious, as if she thought I had an actual reason that she might give some consideration to!

“Well, that is...” I stumbled over my words, trying to find them, “Well, that if I do find a way to escape? What if I do eventually get back home? It could happen, you never know. I'll be mad then, I'd have a _reason_ to want to kill you. If you let me go though, then I'd be  _grateful_  to you. I'd remember how kind you were to me and I'd do everything I could to _avoid_ killing you.”

“Hrmmm...” the wolf girl narrowed her eyes at me, “Fine then. You're too small to be a threat, anyway, or even worth eating. Maybe I will let you go.”

I felt hope rising in my chest.

“Come on then” She said, and waved me on, “I'll show you the way out.”

She started walking forward, and I followed.

I don't know how long it was after that we came to the cabin tucked away in the woods that Da and I lived in. I remember seeing him standing outside, a deep frown stretched across his broad face, his thick hands balled up into fists, before I called out and ran to him. The Wolf could not leap out of my path quick enough, and the undergrowth bit and lashed at my legs. I didn't care however. I crashed into Da, just as he knelt down, sweeping me up into a hug. His arms were tight around me, and his shoulders shook. He was weeping, I realized, as I felt his tears trickling down my neck.

“I'm sorry Da, I'm sorry.” I couldn't get the words out fast enough, and repeated them over and over.

When he finally pulled away, he gave me a long hard look, only shaking his head as he led me back inside. I got an ear full as we finally settled in, but I didn't care, I was just happy to be back.

When I got up to my room, I nearly crashed onto the bed, pulling the quilt up over my head. Within moments I had fallen asleep. But it seemed I had not yet quite escaped the forest. My heart pounded as I suddenly found myself in the dark again, beneath the starlight and the shadowy leaves of the trees. The rough vines and sharp twigs pricked at my bear feet and I shivered, finding myself in only my nightgown.

“She said that nothing had changed.”

I could have lept a foot in the air, hearing that voice again. Turning to face the Wolf, I glared.

“What are you doing here?” I snapped.

“I spoke to the Owl-woman, again.” She said, “She said that nothing had changed. You're still going to kill me.”

“Well, whoever this Owl-woman is, she's _wrong!_ ” I insisted. “I don't want to kill you. I don't want anything to _do_ with you!”

“Oh.” There was a pause there, the wolf girl's eyes growing wider, her mouth hanging open for a moment. She quickly recovered however, “Well! Then why is she prophesying my death? That isn't something that happens without a reason!”

“Maybe because you keep going after me! I don't know! Maybe you should try leaving me alone, and I'll leave you alone, and we'll both be the better off for it!”

“Maybe I will!” She said. But she still stood there and so did I, not being let go from this dream so easily.

“I'm still here.” I muttered

She just crossed her arms and huffed. _Your just being spitefull now..._ I thought. But after a moment, noticed the frown on her face, the way she looked at me. It struck me then, that she was alone. Da always told me that wolves hunted in packs, but twice now she was without one. “Are you that desperate for company?” I asked.

That got her hackles to rise. “I'm not desperate!” she said, suddenly turning away, as if to sulk off. She tugged the head of the wolf's pelt over her own, but stopped a few feet away “Why do you ask?”

Despite myself, a small part of me began to feel pity for her.

“I don't know. You keep looking for it with the person who you think wants to kill you. Which I _don't._ ” I added, yet again.

“I don't _need_ your company.” she insisted.

“Fine then. I was going to ask you if there was any good place to race here, seeing as this dream doesn't look like it will be ending any time soon, but if you don't want to-”

She glanced over her shoulder at me “ _If_ I wanted to do that I'd say that the dear path towards the river is a good one. But you couldn't beat me anyway.”

“You think so?”

“I _know_ so.” and before I could say anything more, she was off, and I soon afterwards. When I awoke the next morning I was breathless and felt as if I had just run a mile. But oddly enough, I found I didn't mind.

That night was not the last time that we spent together. She visited me often as I – we? I couldn't say if she aged in the same manner as me- grew older and...we grew close, strange as it may be to say. Friends, almost. Weeks became months, and soon they too grew into years. I had come to expect the time we spend together, and yes, to look forward to it even.

I was sixteen on the night of that last visit. As soon as my head hit my pillow I found myself seated by the edge of that river we had raced to that first night. I leaned down, letting my hand trail lazilly though the water. The curent was as sluggish and slow as if the river itself were ready to sleep. I heard the foorsteps behind me, but didn't look up. A small smile pulled at my lips.

“You haven't brought me here all week. I thought something had happened to you.”

She gave a snuffling laugh, “ _You_ are the only person I have to worry about in that reguard.” The air shifted as she crouched down behind me. I felt her fingers working through my hair as she pushed it back from my neck. A strange prickling shot down my spine, but...I found I didn't mind. Her hand rested delicately, just on my shoulder, and suddenly she became very still. I heard her let out a long sigh.

Turning to look up at her finally, my brows drew together. “Something wrong?”

The moonlight caught off her hair and the fur of the wolfskin she still wore draped over her shoulders and back, making them glow like silver. My breath caught, seeing her like that, actually noticing her, if felt like, for the first time. She look almost _majestic_. Like the Queen or fine Lady I thought her haughty tone had reminded me of when we were younger.

She drew back, however, a frown pulling at her lips, even as I sat up and tried to move back towards her again.

“You've grown bigger.” She said.

“Well...yes...and?”

“She hasn't changed her prediction, you know. And I've checked, every night.”

I felt my stomach drop. “You can't belive that, surely? I don't want to- _why_ would I want to-”

“I don't know!” she snapped she squeezed her eyes shut tight, running a hand over her face for a moment before letting out a sigh. “I don't know. But...”

The next thing I knew she was leaning back down towards me, capturing my lips in hers. Her kiss was soft and warm, and I felt myself melting into it. But as soon as I responded she pulled back, and was on her feet again.

“You were right.” she said, a sad smile on her face, “I don't see you again, you don't see me again, and we won't have to worry about you doing me any harm. I...I brought you here to say goodbye.”

And even as I was getting to my feet, she was loping away.

I awoke in tears, silent sobs racking my shoulders. I tried to swallow them down but they just kept coming. I wept until I fell back to sleep again, this time dreamless.

I hoped each night that she would reconsider, that she would realize how foolish she was being and bring me back to that place again, deep in the middle of the forest. Disappointment hung over me each morning, as I found that was not the case. I tried to hide it from my father, not wanting him to ask why, not wanting to have to _explain_. And when I went into the woods, off the path, I found myself spat back out into civilization every time.

The years passed. I grew up. I made friends with those around me, though I would allow no man to court me.  Grandmother took me in under her wing. She and her husband had always been friends with my father, I suppose she thought I needed a woman's guidance in my life, as I grew older. I came to view her as I would my own grandmother, and I became to her like a granddaughter myself, or atleast I hope I had.

The morning she had fallen ill, I came by to check on her. The voices I had heard from outside were the last thing I would expect, however:

“Oh! Grandmother,” A young boy's voice. It could only have been Red. I froze when I heard it,“what big ears you have!”

'The better to hear you with, my child,' Came the reply. It _sounded,_ almost like Grandmother's voice as well. But there was something...wrong about it. Something that made my hand fly to the knife at my side even as I listened.

And so it went on like that. What big eyes you have, what big hands you have...

“Grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!”

“The better to eat you with!”

There wasn't time for a scream, only stomach wrenching silence followed. And I _ran._ Into the house through the still opened door, slamming it behind me. And what should snap it's head up, turning towards the door from it's place on the bed but a _wolf?_

The wolf's eyes widened. _Recognition_ blooming there, _fear_ , and in that moment, I knew who I was looking at. My stomach sank as the realization hit me.

“What have you _done?”_ My voice was a mere whisper.

She bowed her head, looking almost ashamed. _Almost._ “I am a wolf.” It was the same voice I knew, perhaps a bit rougher, but not unrecognizable. I knew what she was, but to hear it coming out of the mouth of this...this _beast_ that now lie before me....a nautious heat rose up around my ears. “We hunt and we eat. It's what we do.”

The words felt like a dagger though my gut.

“You...you...Grandmother...and the boy...” I couldn't bring myself to say the words. I only felt myself inexorably drawn towards her, and found I was drawing my blade...

I was stopped by a small sound. ”Is anyone there? Hello! Where am I?” Muddled, as if from far off, it was low shout. A small boy's voice.

My eyes widened, suddenly drawn toward the wolf's stomach. But hadn't she...?

_“This place is a part of me, as much as I am a part of it...”_ The words returned to me, from all those years ago so suddenly.

“Please, no...” the wolf was begging, staring up at me with wide eyes, “You always said you wouldn't...”

Her gaze fixed on mine, and I stood frozen. I had to...she had hurt innocent people...she had....

She had been my friend as a child. I had told her my secrets, my fears and my hopes. I could still remember our last meeting. Could still taste her lips on mine, feel her fingers tangling in my hair...

My hand edged away from the knife's hilt.

“Please! Is there anyone out here?” Grandmother's voice.

And with that, it was decided. With only the vaugest idea of what I was doing- and hadn't it always been so with her?- I lunged forward, driving my knife through the wolf's stomach and cut it open. It felt like cutting though a curtain, or a sack, hollow, empty. No muscles, no bones slowed the progress of my knife. Nothing solid stood there.

But her blood still slickened my hands, warm and wet, gushing over them. My eyes burned, my vision stung. It felt as if someone else were controlling my body, and even as I drove my knife through, my arms were shaking, weaker than they'd ever felt before. In all the years of my life I'd drawn the blood of so many beasts: stags and foxes, and even a bear once. But the tang of blood in the air felt stronger this time, sending my head spinning.

A hand burst through the gash I'd made, and Red crawled out. He was shaking, staring wide eyed at the room around him as he near dropped to the floor. His eyes turned from me to the wolf, then back to me again. Grandmother followed soon after, looking just as much in shock.

The wolf crumpled in on herself. Before she had done so, I could have sworn I saw the dark shapes of trees piercing up into a starlight sky though the gash I'd made, as clearly as looking through a window.

I moved next to her. Shaking breaths still racked her body, now little more than a wolf skin. I could feel both the boy's and Grandmother's eyes on me. And without another thought, my hands hooked around the wolf and I lifted her into my arms. I left, silently.

I did not return immedietly home. Instead I paced deeper into the Forest than I had dare gone before. The trees finally allowed me passage, and I felt the change in the air, as it became thick with an almost sweet scent. Like dew on the early morning grass. I reached a clearing far beyond the call of any ravens or their watching, hungry eyes, where the full moon shone her light down as bright as day. I wasn't really sure myself what I was doing, only that it felt right. I lay her body down. Watching. Waiting.

The air felt thick, anticipation hanging over the clearing. Or was I only imagining it? Projecting my own feelings on the environment? For a moment it seemed to shimmer, like over a cookfire.

And then a thick clicnging fog rolled in.

A howl that seemed to echo through the entire wood rose up. There was a sudden blining flash.

And then she was before me again, standing at my height, golden eyes glowing, silver hair shining, and that wolf pelt slung over her back. Whole and unharmed.

Despite myself, my heart lept. My breath caught.

And then she spoke.

“You could have let me die...”

“I said I wouldn't kill you.” I managed to say, after a moment, stuggling to force myself to regain my composure. I should have been angry. I should have never wanted to see her again. I _was._ I _didn't._ And yet...

And yet I could only stand there and stare.

She was giving me a rueful smile, “I shouldn't have...I didn't know they were anything to you.I am...sorry.”

My eyes flashed. “You think that makes it alright? I'm lucky I saved them when I could! You-”

“I know.” She let out a long sigh, shaking her head. “I know.”

She turned then, becoming a wolf once again and loping off into the trees.

A moment passed, and then another. Before I could stop myself, I was running after her.

 

 


End file.
